HFT (high frequency trading) has dominated the financial media of late. @zerohedge, Charlie Gasparino and CNBC, the StockTwits nation, @steenbab, GMan from @smbcapital, and many other talented bloggers have all weighed in. And then came Senator Schumer: (from Bloomberg courtesy of @zerohedge): Senator Charles Schumer asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ban “flash orders,” saying the transactions give … Read More
Confirmation Bias
Today I fought confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is processing information in the market so that it fits your preconceived opinions. You overvalue all the information that backs your preconceived thoughts. You ignore all the information that counters your belief. @steenbab (Twitter handle) and @thekirkreport have written about confirmation bias in their blogs previously. I wanted to share how I had … Read More
Reading the Tape
In a recent blog Dr. Steenbarger talked about a vital skill for the intraday trader, reading the tape. Dr. Steenbarger, aka the godfather of modern trading psychology, wrote: “My experience is that an understanding of (and ability to read) order flow is one important factor that separates the older, successful generation of daytraders from the newbies who only know simple … Read More
Interview with SMB Co-Founder Mike Bellafiore (“Bella”)
For an excellent interview, with SMB Capital Co-Founder, Mike Bellafiore, about training new traders, the growth of SMB Capital, and trading please see this link:
Brick by Brick
After I leave the office Friday around 7PM I generally grab some dinner (last night at Pomodoro on the UWS….delicious!) and then shut things down for the day. So I missed an important email sent to me last night. An email that a new and developing trader can learn from. One that we should all write to someone who we … Read More
MOS into the Close
It is the third day live for our new class and no one has finished over $100 as of yet. Punks. Basically during the midday I spend much of my time kidding with and harassing the guys who are close to this hurdle. When one reaches $100 then many more will. And one new trader was at $180 into the … Read More
Wednesday Evening Quarterback
A few points….. 1) Today SMB tweeted: Best Morning Idea: Buy $GS @ 150.60-150.90, TGT: high 150s#mktabout 9 hours ago from Twitterlicious That was all GMan. We were asked a follow up question as to how we picked that level, which I will share. Yesterday GS could not hold above 150.50. Also on the longer term chart 150.50 has been a … Read More
Stick With It
Internally SMB shares intraday alerts for all major intraday levels that our desk discovers. Our desk is taught to share important intraday levels verbally through our audio feeds. None of this works without trading skills. None of this works without the trader sticking with a trade. Let’s discuss. Today I was trading OSIP. It was In Play, had gapped up, … Read More